18 August 2015 - Azerbaijan - On 18 August 2015, on the occasion of World Humanitarian Day, the members of the Azerbaijan TB Coalition (TBAzC) organized a TB awareness campaign that was accompanied by live pop music and theatre performances by former-patients and young people.
The purpose of the event was to teach key affected populations more about TB disease, its prevention, treatment and have an opportunity to talk to TB patients and get acquainted with their problems and wishes.
The event took place in the yard of the National Research Institute for Lung Diseases, where hundreds of TB patients receive treatment in wards inside a block of hospital buildings. It is mainly attended by TB patients and their family members who really were in need of such an entertaining event. Some audiences gathered around the circle and some watched through their windows within the hospital setting.
The initiators of the event were the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society with the support of Saglamliga Khidmat and Veremsiz Dunya- both NGO patient organizations and members of TBAzC.
TBAzC tried to help those who are affected by TB and in need of human care, moral and social support. They wanted to let them feel that they are not forgotten and we are there to listen to them and cheer them up in their long treatment period.
Speeches were made by representatives of AzRCS and Saglamliga Khidmat on TB prevention and care. In order to pass more TB messages to the audience, TB educational messages, facts and figures were prepared and displayed on a big screen continuously during whole event. Information brochures on TB were distributed among the participants.
At the end of the event, some participants shared their impression with the initiators of the event. "I have been staying here in this institute with my two kids already for some months. During these time I didn't see my children be so joyful and smile," said a lady whose two small children got TB and were under treatment at the hospital. "I wish such amusing events with moral support were regularly held for the people suffer from diseases like TB"
TBAzC is planning to hold such events among other vulnerable key affected population groups too.